Last Friday I visited Springwood Heath Primary School to meet their new School Council and hear how the school is doing in an increasingly challenging SEND environment. I spoke to their head, Jo Costello, and toured the school to see the different classes and how they offer support to the 57% of their pupils on care plans.
Springwood Heath is a school I’ve been visiting since it was built and it has always taken good care of children with special needs in a mainstream setting, though like schools across the country they are now seeing lower cohorts due to falling birth rates. September’s reception intake will again be a single class, though for 10 SEND places they already have 75 applications.
The School Council were keen to tell me they were elected after a full campaign across the school, including manifestos, hustings and a polling day. Each class elected two councillors, with their two SEND hubs also electing a councillor each. They were interested to hear about what an MP does and asked good questions on why I wanted to be an MP, what’s my favourite thing about the job and what I do in the constituency.